Fitbit has become one of the most well known brand names in the fitness space. In November of 2019, it was announced that Google would be acquiring the publicly traded company for $2.1 billion. In addition to having an app, the company primarily operates on its brand match Fitbit.com domain name.
Fitbit founder James Park recently participated in the How I Built This with Guy Raz podcast on NPR. In addition to discussing how he built the fitness tracking device company, he also discussed what went into creating the Fitbit brand name and how his team decided on the Fitbit branding. It should be no surprise that domain name availability played an important role in naming the company Fitbit. In the podcast, Park disclosed that he bought the Fitbit.com domain name for $2,000.
You can listen to the podcast embedded below for the details (beginning at the 26 minute mark), but here’s the brief synopsis. Park emailed the owner who asked Park to submit an offer, and he offered $1,000. The owner countered at $10,000 and Park responded by improving his offer to $2,000. The domain owner agreed to the $2,000 price, and the Fitbit.com domain name was acquired for $2,000.
Using historical Whois records from DomainTools, I can see that the domain name was acquired sometime between August to September of 2007. I can also see that the prior registrant of Fitbit.com has an address in Russia, as Park stated.
The entire podcast is worth a listen when you have a chance. Thank you to Adam Strong, Co-Founder of NameBio and Evergreen.com, for sharing this with me.
Source: (https://domaininvesting.com/)
